Sherdog.com’s Pound-for-Pound Top 10

Two of our pound-for-pound entrants just fought one another in what
we may look back on as a historic passing of the torch. Two other
P4Pers on this list are due to square off in a month’s time in what
could prove be the “Fight of the Year.” Meanwhile, the current king
of the sport has just engaged in combat with his own promoter.

Have no fear; this is just another Sherdog.com pound-for-pound
rankings update.

Max Holloway knocked out the greatest featherweight in MMA history
-- Jose Aldo -- in a stirring three-round battle at UFC
212 on June 3 in Rio de Janeiro. The win was the 11th in a row
for the exciting Hawaiian, who at just 25 years old, has an
accomplished resume beyond his years and charisma to spare.
“Blessed” may be the best young fighter in the game, and with his
historic victory over Aldo, he rises from eighth to No. 4 on this
list. Meanwhile, Aldo falls from that fourth spot to No. 7.

In just four weeks’ time, we get UFC
213, which means all-time action fighters, the 10th-ranked
Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone and the eighth-ranked Robbie Lawler, are
due for their potentially violent and memorable showdown in Las
Vegas. On the other side of the month, we have UFC
214 on July 29 in Anaheim, California. It boasts the
beyond-anticipated rematch between our second-ranked entrant, UFC
light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier, and the only fighter to
ever beat him, Jon Jones -- a
man who spent over three years atop this list

As for Demetrious Johnson, the man who took Jones’ alpha status on
our pound-for-pound ladder when “Jonny Bones” failed his doping
test last summer, no one can be sure when he will next set foot in
a cage. In the interim, his next fight seems certain to be with his
promoter, the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

With the dissolution of the Cody
Garbrandt-T.J.
Dillashaw bantamweight title fight once slated for UFC 213 and
with Jon Jones’ return against Daniel Cormier at UFC 214 three
weeks later, you would figure most of the discussion involving
Johnson would center on certain questions like “Is he going to
fight Dillashaw or Ray Borg?” and
“When Jones comes back, is Johnson still the pound-for-pound king?”
Then Johnson dropped a bombshell on the MMA world on June 5,
calling out the UFC for “unfulfilled promises” and “bullying,”
stating that the promotion has done little to promote him while
trying to coerce him into a fight with Dillashaw. “Mighty Mouse”
even claimed the UFC told him it would fold the flyweight division
if he did not acquiesce to fighting Dillashaw. The 30-year-old
Johnson can make the case that he has been underpaid, underpromoted
and even disrespected by the UFC. Moreover, it is difficult to cast
aspersions on his resume, given his accomplishments in two weight
classes and his 12-0-1 record at flyweight. Nonetheless, given his
history at bantamweight and how thoroughly dominant Johnson has
been in dispatching his flyweight contenders, the MMA world still
thirsts for him to embark on even richer historical challenges. As
it stands right now, we appear to be in a promotional standoff.

Regardless of what his future holds as a coach and a broadcaster,
Cormier has already established himself as a historically
noteworthy fighter. He was a 13-0 heavyweight who had routed the
likes of Josh Barnett,
Frank
Mir, Jeff Monson,
Roy
Nelson and Antonio
Silva before he ever cut to 205 pounds, where he has found
another division to dominate. Still, no matter how much “DC” has
done in two weight classes, he is still forever judged by his
legendary feud with Jon Jones and more specifically his January
2015 decision loss to “Jonny Bones.” Fortunately for the
American Kickboxing Academy captain, he will get his chance to
avenge the defeat, so long as Jones can show up in the cage.
Jones-Cormier 2 has been announced for UFC 214 on
July 29 in Anaheim, California. With all due respect to Matt
Hamill’s infamous disqualification win over Jones, if Cormier
can become the first man to legitimately beat “Bones,” it may go
down as the single greatest victory in MMA history. Not only would
Cormier be the true undisputed light heavyweight champion at that
point, but he may be the best fighter in the world -- period. In
addition, having just turned 38 years old, Cormier is still a spry
young man by heavyweight standards should he ever want to return to
the division for a major bout or two.

Remember him? Never mind that he is the biggest draw in Ultimate
Fighting Championship history, knocked the greatest featherweight
of all-time, Jose Aldo, flat on his face in 13 seconds and
demolished Eddie
Alvarez for the lightweight title to become the first-ever,
simultaneous two-division UFC champion. What about Max Holloway,
now our No. 4-ranked fighter, who just scored an incredible
championship victory of his own over Aldo? “The Notorious” one was
the last guy to beat him before the Hawaiian took off on his
red-hot 11-fight winning streak, and he did so with a torn ACL.
These things may seem like distant memories to many, given that the
Irishman continues to zealously seek his multimillion-dollar boxing
showdown with Floyd Mayweather Jr. However, the reason McGregor can
dare to hold the UFC and multiple divisions in the sport hostage
while demanding a fight with “Money Mayweather” is the fact that he
has already established himself as historically great. Maybe
someday he will bless us mere MMA mortals again.

It was just over four years ago that Holloway, then 21 years old,
found himself outworked and outgrappled of all things by one Conor
McGregor. Fast forward four years and Holloway finds himself in the
same rarified air as the Irishman. He may not have beaten the best
featherweight of all-time in a mere 13 seconds, but at UFC 212 in
Rio de Janeiro, Holloway nonetheless knocked out the legendary Jose
Aldo to claim the undisputed UFC featherweight championship in
thrilling fashion. The historic victory pushes the Hawaiian’s
winning streak to 11 fights, with nine of those victories resulting
in stoppages. More importantly, those wins have come over the likes
of Aldo, former lightweight kingpin Anthony
Pettis, Ricardo
Lamas, Charles
Oliveira, Jeremy
Stephens and Cub Swanson.
At just 25 years of age, with a beyond-dynamic fight style and
charisma to spare, Holloway is the best young fighter in the sport.
There are already plenty of naysayers who are keen to point out
that he polished off McGregor’s leftovers. With that said, Holloway
plans to reign over his division rather than chasing money fights,
a la “Mystic Mac,” which means he may take on a challenge McGregor
never did and one many accused him of ducking. With Holloway
removing Aldo from the immediate title picture, the “Blessed” one
is likely to face ever-sharp and relevant legend Frankie
Edgar in his first title defense.

Unless you are Fedor
Emelianenko or Antonio
Rodrigo Nogueira from a decade ago, it is difficult for a
heavyweight to hold down a steady place in the pound-for-pound
rankings for a sustained period of time. However, Miocic now has a
year under his belt on this list and shows no signs of slowing
down. Since his June 2013 breakout win against Roy Nelson, Miocic
is 8-1 and has avenged that lone loss, atoning for his December
2014 slip-up against Junior dos
Santos by knocking out “Cigano” in just over two minutes at UFC
211. In his last five starts, the Ohio native has knocked out five
top-10 opponents, and only Mark Hunt saw
the second round. The other four -- Andrei
Arlovski, Fabricio
Werdum, Alistair
Overeem and dos Santos -- are all historically accomplished
heavyweights; in the case of dos Santos, we are talking about one
of the 10 best heavyweights ever and in Werdum perhaps one of the
three finest of all-time. The dos Santos win gave Miocic two
consecutive UFC heavyweight title defenses; one more would give him
the outright record for the weight class. Though the likes of
Derrick
Lewis and Francis
Ngannou represent fresh, new heavyweight challengers, which are
always at a premium, Miocic is tearing through so many of the
division’s legends that it has many fans coveting a clash with
Cain
Velasquez -- a bout with much richer historical significance
and one with the rare ability to help elevate a heavyweight’s
pound-for-pound stature.

For nearly 20 years running, the welterweight division has been a
difficult proving ground where title reigns matter. The likes of
Hayato
“Mach” Sakurai, Pat Miletich,
Matt
Hughes and Georges St.
Pierre and Robbie
Lawler forged legendary MMA legacies based on their dominance
of what has consistently been among the deepest weight classes in
the sport. To beat a welterweight king at his peak is no joke, and
Woodley’s brutal demolition of the aforementioned Lawler at UFC 201
in July remains the biggest reason he is our No. 6 pound-for-pound
entrant. However, the former University of Missouri wrestler is no
one-hit wonder, as “The Chosen One” also boasts recent wins over
the likes of Carlos
Condit, Kelvin
Gastelum, Dong Hyun
Kim and Stephen
Thompson (twice). The 35-year-old Woodley’s position could be
better. He is not always thrilling to watch, and he is antagonistic
with his own promoter. Moreover, his expected next opponent is
jiu-jitsu wizard Demian Maia,
who has been on an incredible hot streak that would land him on
this list if we made it a Top 15 or Top 20. While a win over Maia
would represent the second-biggest victory of Woodley’s career, the
170-pound ace continues to hold out hope that the Brazilian needs
time off, giving him the chance at what he has termed “a legacy
fight.” We have a feeling Woodley is thinking about that
other welterweight champion who just unretired.

In the often backwards logic that guides MMA discourse, perhaps
there is no greater proof that we are in the midst of a legend than
to see that same fighter pilloried for a defeat. If nothing else,
it certainly seems to be the case for Aldo. From November 2009,
when he savaged Mike Thomas
Brown in World Extreme Cagefighting, to that fateful night in
December 2015 when he met Conor McGregor for just 13 seconds, Aldo
did not just stand atop the featherweight division; he ruled it
with an iron fist. After he was dethroned by McGregor at UFC 194,
he responded with a brilliant victory over a surging Frankie Edgar
-- a victory even more historically rich than the first time he
defeated “The Answer.” Many seem keen to write off the Nova Uniao
product, even though he does not turn 31 until September and was up
20-18 on all three scorecards against Max Holloway prior to his
third-round knockout loss at UFC 212. Plain and simple, Aldo may be
1-2 in his last three bouts, but all three of those contests have
come against truly special fighters: the UFC’s first simultaneous
two-division champion, a two-division legend and the best young
fighter we have seen since Jon Jones. It is hard to say what fight
makes sense next for Aldo and how much longer he has left in the
cage, but for now, “Scarface” can still fight.

In spite of an incredible second UFC run in which he captured the
promotion’s welterweight crown and redefined himself as an all-time
great, Lawler is still most remembered for how he lost the UFC
170-pound title in July, falling prey to Tyron Woodley's powerful
right hand. That result notwithstanding, the “Ruthless” one has one
of the sport’s finest records over the last four years. Coming off
of a career-changing title loss, the three-time reigning “Fight of
the Year” author is not taking any softballs in his return.
Initially, Lawler was lined up to face Donald Cerrone at UFC 205 in
November, but the former champion said he needed more time to
train. For some, it would be an excuse to bypass such a contest,
but not for Lawler. Now working under the tutelage of Henri Hooft,
Lawler meets Cerrone at UFC
213 on July 8 in Las Vegas. The matchup could give Lawler
another milestone win and perhaps make him “Mr. FOTY” for an
unfathomable fourth year in a row.

Bisping’s late-career ascent to UFC middleweight champion has been
truly bizarre. Two years ago, he was already on the wrong side of
35 years old; his career had been defined by big-fight failures; he
was suffering through a detached retina; and it seemed like “The
Count” may top out with respectable-but-unspectacular wins over the
likes of C.B.
Dollaway and Thales
Leites. Then came his dramatic, controversial upset of Anderson
Silva. Then he somehow destroyed a cresting Luke
Rockhold on short notice to claim the middleweight crown and
parlayed it into revenge on a 46-year-old Dan
Henderson. Weird as it might be, Bisping has beaten two of the
10 best MMA fighters of all-time in less than 18 months and then
seemed prime to take on another in the recently unretired Georges
St. Pierre, rather than facing undisputed No. 1 contender Yoel Romero.
Then it turned out Bisping-GSP and its dramatic announcement was
premature and the Brit was headed to the sidelines while Romero and
rising contender Robert
Whittaker duke it out for an interim title at UFC 213 on July
8. Like we said, this is a strange world. After all, Bisping is
here at No. 9.

Cerrone’s career is largely marked by his big-fight failures, be it
Nate
Diaz, Anthony Pettis, Rafael dos
Anjos or Jorge
Masvidal. Even so, “Cowboy” is not just one of MMA’s most
dynamic fighters but one of its most accomplished. The 34-year-old
Cerrone is one of this sport’s most active competitors and operates
in MMA’s two best divisions, lightweight and welterweight. After
proving himself as a top-three fighter at 155 pounds, Cerrone blew
his December 2015 UFC title challenge against dos Anjos and moved
up to welterweight. The Jackson-Wink MMA product ripped through
Alex
Oliveira, Patrick
Cote, Rick Story
and Matt
Brown before ultimately falling to Masvidal in January. Losses
matter, but prizefighting is a realm defined by “Who did you beat
and how did you beat them?” Cerrone, who averages four UFC bouts a
year, intuitively grasps that concept. Above and beyond that, he
can earn perhaps the biggest win of his career next time out, as he
faces former UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler on July 8 at
UFC 213 in Las Vegas.